We just finished our 11th BVI charter with 3 couples on a 43 foot catamaran for 10 days. It was a great trip, as always. We followed a pretty typical itinerary so I won’t bother you with all the day to day details. Instead, in fairly random order, here are some highlights/lowlights from our trip.

Highlights:

• Barecat Charters. This was our 7th charter with Barecat and we think it’s a great charter company. Boats are a little older but they’re well maintained, Mike offers great customer service, and during the summer you get 10 days of sailing for the price of 7. Check ‘em out!

• Dinner at Coopers. This has become our favorite first night stop thanks to the gorgeous re-model of the resort. Great food, beautiful setting, short first-day sail, and the snorkeling at Cistern Point isn’t bad either.

• Cow Wreck Bar. Best beach bar in the world as far as we’re concerned. We rented a car in Anegada so we could tour the island at our own pace, but basically just hung out at Cow Wreck for two days.

• Hog Heaven. We had a slip at Leverick and rented a car to go to the Baths. Since we had the transportation, we took a detour for lunch at Hog Heaven. Great place!! Wonderful view, good food, yummy drinks, and super nice people. Stop there if you can manage it!

• Rental car on Virgin Gorda: In the past we’ve taken a taxi from Leverick to the Baths, but this year we rented a car. No advance planning; we just stopped by the hotel office, picked up the car, then stopped at Speedy’s in town to fill out the paperwork. For the six of us, the cost was less than half of what the taxi would have been, and it gave us the freedom to take the detour to Hog Heaven.

• Quiet anchorages: It was very quiet in most harbors. Great Harbor had maybe 10 other boats, Anegada had less than a dozen, etc. We were in the lull right before the Puerto Rican holiday and appreciated the serenity.

• Pirates on Norman: We went here a few times back when it was Billy Bones, but hadn’t spent much time there recently. It was a lot of fun. Loved watching all the kids play in the “baby beach” that laps up near the bar. And, Pirates produced one of the official Best Drinks of the Trip. (see below)

• Best Drink of the Trip: Two-way tie between the Voodoo Punch at Corsairs (not too sweet, not too tart – just right!!) and the BBC at Pirates (smoothly overflowing mountain of Baileys and bananas dusted with nutmeg ).

• Best Meal Ashore: Corsairs on JVD. We hadn’t eaten there before and our group was unanimous in voting this as the best shore food of the trip. Calamari salad, grouper, pizza – all were nice alternatives to the normal ribs/chicken/conch fritters menu you see everywhere, and everything was well prepared and delicious!

• Favorite Happy Hour: Saba Rock. It’s such a nice setting that before you know it you’ve had a few painkillers, then you might as well stay and watch them feed the tarpons, then you might as well try the conch horns that someone is selling off the back of a boat, then you might as well stay and have dinner, and next thing you know you don’t get back to the boat until 10:00.

• Most hospitable restaurateur: Hands down this was Cynthia Harris of Harris’ Place in Little Harbour JVD. From the moment you set foot at Harris’, Cynthia makes you feel like an old friend who’s just stopped by for dinner.

• Best meal of the trip: Grilling hot dogs on board for lunch all by ourselves at Soldier Bay on our last day. Good friends, good conversation, great snorkeling, and beautiful scenery. And that’s why we keep coming back.

Lowlights:

• Travel to/from: Getting to the BVI’s from the west coast requires a commitment! Thanks to three cancelled ferries going to the BVI’s, and two planes with mechanical problems on our return, the trip took 24 hours each way. I’m hoping they have teleportation perfected before next time so that I can avoid using airplanes or ferries.

• White Bay on JVD. Granted it’s a good place to people watch as the daily hordes arrive but for me it gets old after a couple of hours. I’m always relieved to get back to the boat and escape to quieter ports of call.

• Little Harbour JVD: As much as we loved dining with Cynthia Harris, the evening was marred by an invasion of excited houseflies that flew out on eager little wings to meet our boat when we moored at Little Harbour. We’re talking a hundred flies and it took us several days to get rid of them. Icky.